(ThyBlackMan.com) One of the primary ways so many police officers get away with police brutality is the protective mechanisms in place to protect the guilty officers. These mechanisms are embedded in many courts, police departments, law firms and district attorney offices. When combined, they are an effective system of retaliating against a citizen who films or exposes the police. These mechanisms are also used to discourage good police officers and private citizens from spilling the beans, testifying against or helping to prosecute and convict bad officers. And though the “blue code” is a part of these protective mechanisms, they go a lot deeper than that. It is even a dangerous risk to speak of these things and I could not do so if I were not insulated by a network of law enforcement commanders, lawyers and judicial officials (local and federal) who watch my back. So I am going to say a lot you need to know.
Let’s start with filming the police. While your cell phone or video camera can be your best defensive weapon in ending police brutality, there are some things you should know. You need to know the laws in your state regarding filming or audio recording the police and you have to follow them or you will be at risk. Some states have alread
y made it illegal to do so and more are trying to do the same. If you decide to record the police, you need to be a safe distance away or they may retaliate by charging you with “obstruction“. I suggest as far away as possible where your camera can record clearly, but never right up on a police officer. If you are too close, they may say you are in a crime scene and that opens up an entirely new can of worms. If you are in what the police label as a “crime scene“, they may take your phone as evidence related to the incident, and yes they can do that in many cases.
You need to know what to say when they approach you and tell you to stop recording or you can be arrested. You need to know how to take your phone or recording device out or a police officer could easily say at night, for example, that he thought it was a weapon and you could get hurt. A female citizen in Atlanta was in her own yard recording the police arrest of a man next door. The police told her to stop recording but she refused. Even though she was on her own private property, she was tasered and arrested. The lady was eventually released and paid several thousand dollars but the experience was awful and her rights were violated.
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You need to know what apps to use when recording, apps that record in real time or send a live feed to the web – just in case your phone is taken, masked, turned off or destroyed. There are a lot of free apps out there and I recommend apps like the one from the ACLU and others that go to key organizations as well as Youtube. If you are with friends, do not be the only person recording. Password lock and encrypt your phone.
Chris Leday, the citizen who recorded and posted the killing of Alton Sterling by police in Louisiana, appears to have been a clear victim of police retaliation. After he posted the video online, Leday was “coincidentally” arrested a day later at his job in Georgia for a warrant related to traffic charges from years ago. He was handcuffed and shackled like a fugitive felon. This military vet lost his job, lost his security clearance and had to get a lawyer (Tiffany Simmons). Can you determine what critical errors Leday made? What would you have done if you recorded the police killing Alton Sterling? What if you were the girlfriend of Mr. Castile who was shot to death by police in his car? How would you have used your cell phone? Or would you have thought to use it as she did? Be prepared.
Here is the story regarding Chris Leday: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/07/13/man-who-posted-video-of-alton-sterling-killing-claims-he-was-targeted-by-vengeful-police/?utm_term=.c1dff56bf2fd
Leday has paid his traffic violations but still cannot get his job back. The odd thing about this incident is that the police department that arrested Leday had nothing to do with the Sterling incident in Baton Rouge, did they? Blue code? Police departments, courts and district attorneys have a way of using retaliation to help each other and timing often tells the story. Am I implicating an unnamed police department or did they implicate themselves? Here is a better question, are they retaliating against Leday? You be the judge.
Here is more information: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/alton-sterling-shooting-man-who-posted-video-of-killing-arrested-and-allegedly-harassed-by-police-a7139241.html
If you are a citizen who divulges information on police brutality or other criminal activity by the police, you have to decide whether to do so covertly or overtly, but within the confines of the law. Freedom of Speech based on the First Amendment does not always work in your favor because many local police departments may take action against you, leaving you to be arrested, need an attorney, prove your innocence, spend money to do so, possibly lose your job and seek justice in a court system that may in fact be part of the problem. It is a well known fact that courts tend to protect police officers, presume the officer acted properly and assume that victims of police brutality must have been the ones doing something wrong until proven otherwise.
If you file a complaint against an officer with his department, you are officially on record and they have all of your information. That leaves you open like a sitting duck, therefore sometimes better options include the news media (especially investigative reporters), social media and other lawful options that reduce your chances of being a target of retaliation. You have to decide whether or not to use your name, your Face book or Twitter, your home internet for uploading, your personal cell phone when posting, your own email or home address. Your character can be assassinated and you can be made to look like anything from a drug dealer to a fugitive felon to a common thief. Be careful and be smart.
Police departments and Citizen review Boards often claim to have procedures to address your complaints fairly, but if you believe that is always the case, I have the Brooklyn bridge I want to sell you for $5.00. Once you have made a complaint or blown the whistle overtly, your information is out there and you or your family can be a target for retaliation in ways you never thought of. It can be a warrant “mistakenly” served on you because your name or social security number is similar to someone else’s. It can be a 10 year old traffic ticket you forgot about that suddenly rises to the surface. It can be that you are stopped on the way home from work on the same route you have driven a thousand times with no problem. And the even scarier issue is that many attorneys know this is happening but play dumb.
You have to decide whether to let everybody know what you are doing or nobody. Anything in the middle places you at risk. If you let everybody know including your church, your attorney, friends, family, activist organizations, media and social media, the exposure you receive may provide some protection because people are watching what happens to you. You can use social media but just remember social media is not your best friend. One call from a police department and social media will drop or close your account like a bad habit.
Police retaliation is often done skillfully and sometimes even made to look like an innocent error. Those who do this are breaking the law but because they are the law, they have an unfair advantage and you will have to prove it. They know that. They also know the laws, many courts and district attorneys are often blindly and blanketly on the side of the police. None of this means your efforts are hopeless. It is never hopeless and you are not helpless. But be smart, be lawful, be strong, be accurate and be discreet in what you do. Good luck.
Staff Writer; Trevo Craw
